Feb 12, 2009

Tulumbe

As part of February edition of a food blog event, FBI Rukavice ,created for food bloggers from formerly Yugoslavia (but open to others who speak the language) by Maja of Cooks and Bakes, we are investigating Palachinka. There is also an English version of the game available for all food bloggers, FBI Gloves, and coincidentally, for that event this month I am under investigation : )

If you don’t already know Marija, and her blog Palachinka then I am shocked!!!She is an inspiration to so many, and my dear friend, whom I can’t wait to meet personally. Her blog is filled with such wonderful recipes, and amazing photography in which she seems to adopt her own personal style, as I can now easily distinguish her photos from others. She never seizes to astonish us with culinary creations from the Balkans, and countries from all over the world, and of course is a great presenter of her own country’s cuisine, Serbian cuisine.

I am probably her greatest fan, as I cannot imagine a day without satisfying my eyes with her wonderful presentations, I simply love her work, and she has helped me personally so much with tips on food photography, and blogging. Thank you Marija!

With so many recipes, it is hard to try just one, but for starters, I have tried one of my favorite sweets, Tulumbe. One of the favorite, and oldest desserts in the Balkans, and Marija’s recipe is special because they are not fried, as they traditionally are, but baked.I have followed her recipe fully, and only step I skipped was caramelizing sugar, and that’s because when I saw how beautiful they are turning up to be in the oven, I have decided to go the faster route, and just make simple syrup, like she suggested, by boiling sugar, and vanilla sugar with water.

I must also admit that I couldn’t possibly wait for them to sit overnight, I wanted them ASAP, and they have soaked pretty fast since I have made them a bit smaller.From now on I am never frying my tulumbe again, they are much puffier, and evenly baked in the oven as oppose to fried ones, and it’s also easier, and I didn’t sacrifice my hands to burns as much as when I fry them. Also, not to mention, saving the oil.I didn’t have the proper piping tools, so the shape of my tulumbe is not exactly perfect, but that doesn’t change the great taste. Simply delightful!

Hi Medena,your recipes remined me very much of my grandmother's food (we are Slovenian, but she lived for a long time in Novi Sad and Belgrade when she was young). I remember she used to prepare something similar as these tumbule - they were called bobice and looked similar, but the dough was made from semolina (gris) instead of flour and she soaked them in lemon syrup. Ever heard of that, perhaps?

maybe i shd get in on one of these FBI investigations. they seem really cool. have never heard of or tried tulumbe but they remind me of chocolate eclairs. really cool. now i wanna go read up on the Balkans :)